Fangirling Chinese Novels

Life: A Black and White Film (一生一世，黑白影画) — Chapter 12.4

This chapter answers even more questions. 🙂 Slowly, the pieces are coming together… right? Any surprises for you? I must say, Cheng Muyun’s composure is just too awesome here. Love it. “Because Buddha is here.” LOL.

Chapter 12.4 — This Avici Hell (4)

He was not given any extra time. Cheng Muyun was absolutely required to leave with them immediately.

Once he sat into the vehicle, it drove directly out the back door of the manor estate.

Cheng Muyun turned and glanced back at that gray wall that was not too tall, mulling over what Wen Han would do after she realized he had disappeared. If this were more than a month ago, that ordinary girl from Moscow would have cried. But what about now?

The vehicle passed through the streets outside the manor.

The streets were teeming with people who had come from all places, all of them gathered here to take part in the celebration tomorrow of the manor lord’s total dedication of his life to Buddha. There were people crammed against people. All of them, the old, the young, and women, were dressed in splendid attire.

Noisy and lively.<>Please support the original translation of this story at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

……<>This is an UNAUTHORIZED copy, taken from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

Inside the vehicle, Meng Liangchuan and a few armed officers sat, shoulder to shoulder, across from Cheng Muyun. Giving a cough, Meng Liangchuan switched into a relatively official type of voice to talk to him. “It’s like this. Back when you and Fu Yiming arrived at an agreement of cooperation, Fu Yiming’s direct superior, that is, the top dog of the Interpol, actually did not think it was a good idea. Therefore, in that small ops team of yours, there is a higher-level undercover Interpol agent, and he’s been there already for many years.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Dancing in Cheng Muyun’s eyes was completely that unique smile of his as he waited for Meng Liangchuan to carry on with what he was saying.

Meng Liangchuan’s brows lifted. “His assignment is to keep you under watch. Cheng Muyun, you yourself should be very clear on this. You were not one of us, were not part of our organization back then. You had a criminal record and had gone to prison before.”

Cheng Muyun motioned that he should continue speaking.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

“Your return this time was sudden, and Fu Yiming even worked with you to assemble all the members of the ops team to Nepal and India. That made the higher-ups very nervous. The assignment this undercover agent was given was to continue monitoring you to see what exactly you were doing.” Meng Liangchuan sighed, “Originally, everyone kept their silence. But now that a homicide case has occurred, things are different. We are criminal police. We can’t use those methods that the triads use. We can’t just chop off the hands and feet of whoever betrays the organization.”

Twisting open the cap, he slowly drank the water down.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

Meng Liangchuan heaved a final sigh. “Zhou Ke and Zhuang Yan are both police detectives, so it’s not possible that their deaths would not be investigated. Of course, my colleagues in Nepal and I can testify that you did not kill Zhou Ke. But Zhuang Yan’s death was so sudden, and you would not let an autopsy be performed and even had someone transfer the body away. That’s a violation of the rules. So, that undercover agent acted in accordance with the rules and passed that information on to me… and I passed it on to my superiors. Then, the orders I received were to bring you away.”

Nodding again, Cheng Muyun at last asked a question in return. “And so, who is that person?”

Was it Fu Yiming? Chen Yuan? Or Cheng Jiayi?<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

To have been with him for many years and also be able to effectively carry out surveillance on him, only these few fit the criteria. Others were not close enough to him.

Meng Liangchuan discovered that it was very difficult to state the name.

It was equivalent to telling Cheng Muyun, while he was doing his utmost to try to find that “mole,” someone had stabbed him in the back and reported him for being connected to a homicide…

“You’ll know in a moment.” After wavering for a long while, Meng Liangchuan still did not end up saying it out.<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.

All along the way, their vehicle passed through areas of various types of planting and cultivation.

From coffee plantations, to tea farms, to, finally, a sea of sunflowers, the vehicle drove until it entered the grounds of a very ordinary farm and stopped in the front courtyard, where Cheng Muyun was informed that he could get off.

He stepped out of the vehicle. All around, the people who had been gathered there now dispersed.

Someone walked out from the house. It was a high-ranking Interpol official in his forties. This person had an Asian face, but when he spoke, it was all in English. “Hello, former hero.”

Cheng Muyun did not answer. Shifting his gaze, he let it fall on the person behind that high-ranking official, the person who had already changed into a police uniform and was coughing quietly—Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan pulled off his blue, metal-framed glasses and gave Cheng Muyun an apologetic smile.

Without speaking, Cheng Muyun strolled directly into the room.

They had hastily set up this ordinary farmhouse to become an interrogation room.

That high-ranking official and two of his subordinates sat behind a long table. As he pointed at the three chairs in front of them, his smile was still genial. “Just carrying out routine business. Let’s have a little talk.”

Meng Liangchuan and Chen Yuan astutely chose to walk over and take a seat.

As ones who had come on the entire journey here with Cheng Muyun, they both naturally needed to be questioned as well.

The high-ranking official once more pointed at the chair in the middle. Ambling over, Cheng Muyun brushed a glance over Meng Liangchuan, then gave Chen Yuan a deep look before sitting down.

The door was shut. Apart from the transcriber, there were only the six of them.

Three interrogation officers, three people to be interrogated.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

The high-ranking Interpol official pointed at Meng Liangchuan with his pen. “When did you meet Cheng Muyun? Why did you meet him?”

Meng Liangchuan recalled, “Three years ago, in order to investigate the largest trafficking ring in Nepal, I went undercover, infiltrating the underground black market and becoming a gun for hire. Half a year ago, my superiors suddenly gave the orders that Cheng Muyun had entered Nepal’s borders and I was to find a way to approach him and get close to him.”

“Do you know what he came here to do?”<>Please read this story at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

“No, not at all.” Meng Liangchuan used a truthful face to speak a lie. “I only know that he wanted to steal a batch of goods and, while he was at it, get revenge by destroying that smuggling base in Nepal. Afterward, I helped him deliver those goods to this manor here in India, and then my business was over.”

“Oh?” The high-ranking official was suspicious. “You truly did not know? Then why did you continue to stay in Nepal?”

“Oh, that.” Meng Liangchuan gave a cough. “I knew a long time ago that there was one of our own who had gone undercover and was by his side. I thought, if I stayed with him and the time came when that undercover brother was in danger, I could be of assistance.”

The look on Meng Liangchuan’s face was one of complete openness.

The high-ranking official gave a nod, then turned his eyes to Chen Yuan. “When did you meet Cheng Muyun? Why did you meet him?”

Chen Yuan answered sedately, “Thirteen years ago, after Fu Yiming was rescued by Cheng Muyun, he wanted to specially enlist Cheng Muyun into the ops team and turn over the role of leader to him. Consequently, my superiors sent me to join that ops team, and my assignment was to monitor Cheng Muyun.”

“Do you know what he came here to do?”<>Please read this story at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

“I was not absolutely certain. I merely had speculations.” Chen Yuan carried on speaking his words of truth. “Half a year ago, after Cheng Muyun entered Nepal, he sent word to Fu Yiming that the entire team was to come to the border area between Nepal and India and continue investigating the case. Back then, the operation had only destroyed the smuggling route along the Russia-Mongolia border. Cheng Muyun said, he now had already learned the details on the smuggling route along the India-Nepal border.”

“So Cheng Muyun’s presence here this time is as a retired member of the team continuing to help Fu Yiming investigate the case?”

“No. That is his excuse.” Chen Yuan contemplated for several seconds. “He came back for revenge. He suspects that many years ago, there was a traitor in the ranks, and that was what resulted in the deaths of so many members of the team. So, Cheng Muyun’s return this time is to find the spy.”

The high-ranking official nodded. “What you mean is, he was going to take the law and punishment into his own hands, to use illegal means to investigate who the traitor is in the ops team.”

“Yes, that is correct. They are illegal means.” Chen Yuan stated his final conclusion.<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.

Inside this room, there were clacking sounds.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead.

The transcript was being concurrently sent to Headquarters and also, at the same time, being wiped out from the computer, leaving no record behind.

These people who had come here actually did not have the seniority to make a judgment on this. After all, that special Moscow operations team was actually very high ranking. The rank of this high-up official doing the interrogation was actually one level lower than Fu Yiming’s, and he had no authority to issue punishment.

Hence, they were responsible only for the questioning piece and would wait for Headquarters to make the verdict: should Cheng Muyun be taken into custody and turned over to Headquarters or not?

He had, after all, vanished for ten years, so now, suddenly seeing him here in person, the feeling that they had was that he was like a man who had stepped out of a stack of black and white photographs.

Time will grind the edges off of everything.<>Please read this story at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

The he of today had buried away his extremeness and untamed self and was now placid as the waters of a deep pond.

The official gave a cough and prepared to ask his questions.

“I need a Russian interpreter,” Cheng Muyun impassively told the other party in English. “You see, when all is said and done, I am still someone from Moscow. If I do not use my mother tongue and end up being unable to properly convey my meaning through my words, that would be a great disadvantage to me. Also, please give me a cup of hot water. I do not want the atmosphere here to become like an interrogation. I do not feel I have committed any wrongdoing. That is especially true in regards to Mister Chen Yuan’s malicious conjecture of ‘illegal means.’ ”

“Of course, of course. No conclusion has been established yet about all of this.” The official motioned with his hand. “Go outside and find someone who knows both Russian and English. While you are at it, go pour a cup of hot water for Cheng… Mister Cheng Muyun.”

Five minutes later, all of his requests were met.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

With another cough, the official prepared to ask his questions.

“I came here to the border between India and Nepal precisely because I wanted to track down that smuggling line.” Without needing him to ask, Cheng Muyun directly answered the question. “Of course, we were only halfway through the investigation and then that smuggling base in Nepal was blown up, after which all my leads were cut off.”

“Oh?” The official thought briefly. “Then what is your purpose for coming to India?”

“Because Buddha is here.”<>Please support the original translation at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

“……”<>This is an UNAUTHORIZED copy, taken from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

“Here, in India and Nepal, it is the birthplace of Buddhism. Although it was somewhere in China that I entered into the monastic and became a monk, and I do not follow Hinduism, they still share a common origin, after all. I would believe that there is nothing to be condemned about coming here because of one’s beliefs and religion.” Cheng Muyun meticulously, with small sips, enjoyed the cup of hot water that he held, as if savouring a rich cup of Indian coffee.

“Regarding Zhou Ke’s death, I am greatly aggrieved. I hope you all will continue the investigation and make that trafficking ring pay its due price.” A smile was on Cheng Muyun’s lips as he looked directly at this official in front of him. He had nevertheless once been the ops leader of that special operations team in Moscow and two levels of ranking higher than this official… “However, my apologies. I cannot help you with it. I am one who follows the monastic way.”

“Please set your mind at ease.” A solemn look covered the official’s face. “In regards to Zhou Ke’s death, we have already created a special case for it. Any companion’s sacrifice of death should be engraved onto our hearts.”

“Zhuang Yan…” Cheng Muyun lowered his eyes, remaining surprisingly silent.<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.

Everything was quiet. Even the transcriber in charge of uploading the records and sending them off had stopped.

Waiting for this crucial answer.<>Please read this translation at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

“My heart is extremely pained as well, even though I did not know him well.” Cheng Muyun once more opened his mouth to speak. “Why was there no autopsy? Because I do not trust any outsiders. And therefore, some people within the ops team have already sent the body back to Moscow. I trust that shortly, there will be a long and detailed autopsy report. If by that time you need me to cooperate with that investigation, I will gladly do so.”

No interrogation or questioning had been necessary. All that had needed to be said, Cheng Muyun had now finished saying.

This included his final words: “And as for Mister Chen Yuan’s speculations that I am trying to root out a mole? That is truly absurd. Way back ten years ago, I had already left the ops team. I have not been leader for a long time already, and I have neither the position nor the authority to investigate that. My apologies. I do not accept that allegation.”<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.